The Lakers have struggled at that spot as they need a more traditional point as they move from the triangle offense to Mike Brown’s sets, and so they are looking at their options. And Arenas is one of them, reports Alex Kennedy at Hoopsworld.

The Los Angeles Lakers have expressed interest in Gilbert Arenas, according to sources close to the situation. The 30-year-old is an unrestricted free agent after being amnestied by the Orlando Magic last month. No signing is imminent, but the Lakers have reached out to the veteran point guard.

League sources say that Arenas would love to join the Lakers. He grew up in Los Angeles and is interested in playing for his hometown team. He believes that he can contribute in Los Angeles’ backcourt, which currently features an aging Derek Fisher, injured Steve Blake and inexperienced Darius Morris.

Arenas played better than expected at the start of last season in Washington but his 8.2 PER after being traded to Orlando would have younger players in the D-League. He’s not old (30) but has the knees of a retiree and had some issues with them last season in Orlando. Maybe the rest from not playing and some reported weight loss can change that, but if this gets serious Lakers doctors should take a long look at him. On the up side, Arenas was not an off the court distraction last season.

The bigger question is does he really solve the Lakers problems at the point? One of the key things hurting the Lakers offense is spacing because they lack shooters (allowing teams to pack the paint, collapsing on Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol, plus cutting off driving lanes for Kobe Bryant). As a team the Lakers are shooting 27 percent from three this season, and that’s a number that has gone up over the last week.

Arenas is not a great shooter. Last season he shot 29.7 percent on threes and in Washington before he was traded he took five long two pointers a game (via Hoopdata). While Arenas hit a reasonable 42 percent of those shots, that is not really the shot the Lakers need more of (Kobe is taking 9.5 shots from 16-23 feet a game already).

Apparently the Lakers are at least having some level of conversation with Arenas. We’ll see if it ammounts to much. But the fact it is going on says more about the Lakers than Arenas.

He never pulled a gun on a teammate, and although the gun issues he had were nothing to make light of, there’s no indication whatsoever he’s ever been a “cancer” in a locker room. He’s a guy who’s taken less money twice to stay with his team and came off the bench by his own choice to preserve team chemistry. He’s had trouble adjusting to not being “the guy” but that’s not crazy.

And the Lakers ARE that desperate. This is a team that’s singing the praises of Andrew Goudelock after a 14 point game. As long as it’s a minimum deal, I have no problem with it.

Here’s a statistic for you. Arenas has played 10 years in the NBA. He’s missed 30 or more games due to injury in 6 of those seasons. In the 4 years he was actually healthy, he shot an average of 39 percent from the floor. He’s the most overrated and overpaid player in the history of the NBA. Yes, even more than Eddy Curry. At least Curry had a bona fide heart ailment as his excuse for being a washout. Arenas can’t use that excuse, because he has no heart in the first place.

“Arenas played better than expected at the start of last season in Washington but his 8.2 PER after being traded to Orlando would have younger players in the D-League.” that makes no sense. How do you get paid for this? You make at least 1 grammatical error every post. That sentence makes no sense.

first of all he needs a comma between “Washington” and “but.” So there is at least one mistake in that sentence.

Second of all, read that sentence aloud. It doesn’t make sense. What does he mean by “his 8.2 PER after being traded to Orlando would have younger players in the D-League.” I honestly don’t even know where he was going with that. Please, if i’m missing something, explain it to me.

mytthor - Jan 28, 2012 at 5:55 PM

Think about it like this

Arenas played better than expected at the start of last season in Washington but his 8.2 PER after being traded to Orlando would have younger players SENT TO the D-League.

Makes perfect sense as written (although yes, it would have better to put a comma in there).

tcclark - Jan 28, 2012 at 6:36 PM

ok i get it now, but it is poorly worded. he should have worded it the way you did.

00maltliquor - Jan 28, 2012 at 2:25 PM

As a short-term, one year quick fix, it’s worth a shot man. We got nothing back there, I can’t take it no more! He’s not the answer long run, I know, no one still sitting in free agency is but we got to do something. Arenas used to be one of my favorite players back in the day.

I agree, I don’t think Arenas is really going to help the Lakers get where they need to be, but I think they should roll the dice anyway. They need another perimeter player who can create a shot for himself, if nothing else. I just get the feeling Arenas’ creaky knees are going to make him a shadow of what he once was.

If he’s the best option for a short term fix I would do it, he could help with depth and help give Kobe some more rest time. Second team could have Arenas at point and Goudelock and shooting gaurd instead of playing back up point. The only thing that worries me is if their looking at Arenas it could mean things aren’t looking good on the trade front. They might be in the mind set that they won’t be able to trade for a long term replacement at this point.

I’m hoping they would be looking at him more for Bench scoring than as a point guard. It would make sense since they have no one coming off of the bench. He could be a poor-man’s Jason Terry, Jamal Crawford, or Lou Williams.

The most important point guard to the Lakers was Brian Shaw. They sealed their fate when they chose not to go him as head coach. Mike Brown may pan out in the long run, but you can only very rarely expect continuity when you change a team’s entire approach to playing offense. Especially if that involves dumping the sixth man of the year in favor of an all-star point guard, which they hadn’t had since Magic Johnson. Even if CP3 were in a Laker’s uniform right now, they’d be having the same depth issues.

Gilbert Arenas will not help the Lakers, he’s proven over time that he was overhyped while underperforming at his position. Nope the Lakers need a young point guard like Rajon Rondo. A real shame the Lakers passed on Nate, the Celtic’s really small guard who got thrown overboard last month. He would have matched up nicely against Berea and other young small guards who give Fisher fits.

The Laker’s biggest problem is that pathetic excuse of a coach Mike Brown. What has Brown done for us Laker fans? Just Lose Baby. I would go old school by firing Brown and letting Kobe coach the team as a player/coach, just like Bill Russell did for the Celtics several decades ago. A real shame that Brian Shaw wasn’t taped to coach the Lakers to perpetuate the Triangle Offense and Jackson’s legacy of winning 5 titles for the Lakers. Sad that Jerry Buss seemed to want to erase Jackson’s legacy so quickly after Jackson did so much for his organization.

Gilbert Arenas is a problem child and the Lakers don’t need some temperamental twit like him stinking up the court. Get a really good young point guard and jettison Fisher. I like Fisher but he’s dragging the team down, he needs to show some loyalty to the team that helped him win 5 rings by asking to be traded or retiring. I’m writing the Lakers off this season now that they’ve shown no class on the road, you don’t win championships by losing on the road.